84 Chapter 84 : : Ally

Ajin nodded then replied "I see, so it was like this, I thank Miss Elza for her help, if it was not for you then we would have been in trouble, your timely help saved my team from the unseen danger, as the honoured rules of adventures, all these monsters and the material acquired from them belong to you,"

'Same old move, he wants to do us a favour and also win our trust at the same time, but these actions means, we can't just walk away, he would surely invite us to do something. If we accept the whole gift then it would be hard to reject if he proposes something next,' Kale thought.

In his reply, Elza smiled and spoke "Master Ajin surely jests, I have just received the honour of fighting beside Master Ajin and have witnessed that strength first hand, I wouldn't have been able to defeat that Thorny Lizard Queen myself under those circumstances without paying a heavy price, that's why we cannot take this big of a gift from your team,"

'Smart woman, she understands,' Kale faintly smiled as he observed Elza's tactics.

Ajin slightly raised his brows, he still persuaded "I understand that Miss Elza is quite modest and kind, but this is something you deserve, we cannot keep it,"

Elza hesitantly nodded, she looked troubled for a few seconds then spoke "They how about it, we will divide it in half,"

Ajin stared at Elza, then scanned through his two teammates and nodded "If you say so, we will do that,"

He paused for a moment then continued "Let them handle the extraction of goods, there is something I would like to talk about, we both can gain more benefits this way,"

Elza narrowed her eyes at him.

{Go, but whatever he proposes, whether you want to reject or accept, don't reply fast, say that you want to discuss it with the team, he is probably going to ask to explore the lower floors together, ask for the medium of trust and belief,} Kale transmitted a message to her.

Elza nodded at Ajin.

Ajin faintly smiled, though Elza couldn't see because of the monkey mask, the change in the looks of his eyes revealed it to her.

Ajin went away from the battlefield with Elza, Kale was left together with Fynn and four female adventurers.

The cat masked woman started digging out the cores of the slain beast without saying any word, while the fox masked one turned to Kale and the two sisters.

{Remain near that cat mask woman all time, she is a mage, her weakness is close combat, if she shows the slightest intention to attack or if Ajin attacks Elza, you are supposed to take her down and use her as a hostage, if you can't, then kill her, do it without any mistake,} Kale said to Fynn.

The fox masked girl came to Kale, she looked at all three of them then bowed respectfully "Thanks for protecting me,"

Kale hurriedly waved his hand and said in fluctuating tone "No, no need to act so modestly, we were just following orders, I believe you would do the same if you were in our place,"

Xaxa looked at Kale acting all frustrated when eyeing the girl, and her lips twitched.

His personality took a180° turn compared to before.

Unlike her, Zalie just bowed in return.

"I see, then thanks," The fox masked girl said with a giggle at his behaviour, then her eyes flickered and she continued "I almost forgot to introduce myself, I am Tanya and the one there is my Big Sister Ryenne, don't mind her, she is the quiet type and doesn't talk much,"

Kale heard her words and hurried to strengthen his back as he replied "I am Kayn, these two are my companion, Big Sister Xaxa and Big Sister Zalie,"

'Only our names are real,' Xaxa narrowed her eyes containing hidden fury at him, Zalie was the same.

After saying that, Kale found the two sisters staring at him, he acted embarrassed, like he just realized he introduced others himself in hurry.

The atmosphere felt awkward so Tanya broke the silence "Anyway, I was curious about one thing Kayn, I am just Tier 1 but still here because Uncle Ajin brought me here for gaining experience, but why are you here too?"

Kale looked at her and replied "So that's how it was, I am just here to collect research material, I am an aspiring Plant Mage you see, so my knowledge about plants is higher compared to normal. Other people cannot easily find the things we want here, they are hard to recognize and unroot without destroying them, so my Master personally sent me here to help them collect the material,"

Tanya nodded and asked another question as she took out her dagger and started taking out cores from the dead monsters.

Xaxa and Zalie also went to work.

Kale remained close to her and kept the conversation ongoing as he too worked, he was paying full attention to Tanya's words while shyly looked at her body from time to time.

Tanya just laughed and ignored his behaviour, in her view, it was completely normal. She was aware of her beauty especially when wearing that kind of clothing, it would be unusual if a boy like Kale in puberty completely ignores her, his behaviour only made her less suspicious.

With six people at work, they quickly finished collecting the cores and burring their bodies to prevent their bloody smell from attracting more monsters.

***

After a while, Elza and Ajin came back, all the members tactfully moved to their acting leader's side.

Though Kale sent Elza a message to confirm if the talk went well before doing that, because if not, he would rather take Tanya who was at his hand's reach, as a hostage rather than letting her walk to Ajin's side who was without a doubt the strongest person among them.

Elza took the team to a safe distance, then said in a low tone "It was just as you said, he proposed that we should go explore the lower floors with them, as for the bargaining chip, he said he knows the hidden weakness of Bosses on the lower floor. If we help him then he will give us 50% share of all the Bosses we hunt together,"

Kale was surprised 'He knows the Boss's weakness which even the Guild isn't sure of? The Boss can change with time but his words sound like he is prepared for that, the question is why is he willing to share 50% with us, with such news he could attract bigger parties? Is it a trap? No, it is not worthwhile to make such a trap, what am I missing?'

Elza saw him pondering deeply and spoke "Master, I don't know if you would like my proposal but we don't have much of a choice and can only agree with him, because if we go back, what awaits us is a group of well-trained assassins ready to kill us. On the other hand, if we go out with them later on, then the chances of our survival will increase,"

Kale looked at Elza 'She is mostly right, moreover by using the poisoned flesh of other Bosses I can speed up the cultivation of my ‹Nether Venom Body›, once I reach the second stage I will be able to control the venom in my body,'

‹Nether Venom Body› has four chapters, the first is Venom Blood in which all the fluids from the body will contain venom but the host cannot control the venom in any way. The second stage is Venom Heart, after reaching this stage, the venom in the host's body will go through a qualitative leap, and the host will get the regulator that will give them the ability to thoroughly control the venom in their body.

After a moment of thought, Kale nodded.

Elza was relieved from his response, she then went to Ajin's side for giving her answer.

The others followed behind her, while maintaining a short distance.

***

On the other side...

Ajin stared at Tanya "Is it necessary to take them too? If we really need help, we can find better tankers in the guild to sacrifice later on,"

Tanya nodded with a serious expression "Yes, it is necessary, the mobs don't contribute much to my level-ups now, attracting a small monster horde like before won't do any good either, only Boss monsters can make me level up faster, sharing 50% with them is not that important.

Furthermore, it has to be them, their timing and state are perfect, that boy and the two girls around him are just Tier 2 like me, they also have good bonds with their team leader it seems, if something happens then we can use them as hostages, a kind-natured team like that is less likely to betray us due to greed too.

I don't plan to use and throw them for now, if they are useful enough we can keep going with them when exploring the lower floors of another General-type dungeon,"

Ryenne heard her words and lightly sighed "You are too careful sometimes, we even avoided hunting the Bosses of 1st and 2nd floor to not caught attention of the guild, and came here where the number of adventure is very low. The same goes for that woman's team, instead of being overly cautious, if we use our full strength, we all aside, if I alone use my Blood Magic, they will have to kneel, we don't need to worry about taking hostage in such a team,"

Tanya narrowed her eyes at her, she reached out her hand, pinched her ear and pulled Ryenne's face just before hers.

"Ouch, stop doing that," Ryenne winced in dissatisfaction, but no resistance.

"Idiot, going ahead without any backup plan is what got you arrested in the first place, don't think there would be another Hero coming to save you the next time you get arrested," Tanya snorted at her words. After saying that much she released her ear from her grasp.

Ryenne awkwardly opened her mouth to speak, she then saw Ajin staring at her and closed her mouth back.

"We will go with your plan," Ajin said without any second thought.

Tanya nodded without any change in her expression, she then noticed Elza followed by her team, coming towards them, she signalled Ajin.

Ajin turned to face Elza "So what's your decision, Miss Elza?"

"We will go with your plan, but," Elza showed some hesitation on her face.

"But?" Ajin raised his eyebrow.

"You see my team needs to at least see your faces to have some trust in you people," Elza stopped after saying that much. Her meaning was already clear, she was asking them to remove their masks and show their faces.

Ajin turned and looked at the two people.

Before he could reply, Tanya reached out her hand and removed her mask, revealing her exquisite face.

"It's normal for them to wish that, why would we have any problem with such a thing?" She said with a smile.

"Yes, we only wear a mask as dress code and hide our faces from the masses, it's no problem to show it to you people who helped us, and we will be working together after all," Ajin said as he removed his mask.

Once his mask was removed, a handsome face of a man came into view, he had silver hair and deep black eyes, his faint smile and expression matched well with his facial features.

Following the two, Ryenne also removed her mask showing her face, she was a mature lady, her deep red eyes went well with her brown hair, her expression was cold but had a special charm to it.

Elza nodded and looked back, Kale hesitantly removed his mask too, the second he did, his silvery-white hair at forehead fell and covered his eyes, the rest of his face was innocent as a newborn child seeing the world for the first time.

Kale nervously raised his head to peek at Tanya.

Tanya looked back at him and smiled. Kale looked away shyly, avoiding eye contact.

'Youth...' Tanya inwardly sighed as she looked at him.

"Let's have a good partnership," Elza said.

Ajin nodded "Don't worry you made a good decision, my team is slightly tired, let's find a place to rest for a while, then we will move to the fourth floor, our destination is the Boss Room,"

"Before that, if it's fine with Master Ajin, can your team share some heart flesh of the Boss of this floor with us, it's one of the material on our list to collect," Elza said politely.

Once a Boss Room is cleared, it takes time for a dungeon to raise another monster leader into a Boss, Ajin has accepted that they cleared the Boss Room on the third floor which means there won't be another Boss monster there for a while.

Ajin nodded without any haggling "If it's only a small piece, we are happy to comply,"

Elza, of course, asked for the poisoned flesh of a Boss Monster on Kale's order, with that, he cannot only raise his ‹Nether Venom Body› cultivation but also boost Little Snake's growth while also refining and shaping its poison evolving route.